Delays in T1 adjustments to be examined

The Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, François Boileau, has opened an examination into delays with complex T1 adjustments, a release on Thursday said.

With complex T1 adjustments — where the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires more information or must review the request — the service standard is 20 weeks. Yet, as of May 14, the agency was taking up to 47 weeks for these adjustments, the release said. Between Feb. 21 and April 17 of this year, the processing time had been even longer, at about 49 weeks.

In comparison, routine T1 adjustments through a taxpayer’s CRA account or tax software have a service standard of two weeks, and routine T1 adjustments by phone or email have a service standard of eight weeks. Between Feb. 21 and April 17, the CRA did better than the eight-week service standard, with processing times of about seven weeks.

The Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson has been receiving a “consistently high level” of complaints about the delays in processing complex T1 adjustment requests, the release said. The office announced earlier this month that it was examining the options available to taxpayers to resolve complaints with the CRA.

In Thursday’s release, Boileau said the delays “touch on several rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.” With the examination, “we are hoping to get to the root causes of why the CRA is not currently meeting its service standard.”

The examination may lead to recommendations, which would be made to the finance minister or both the finance minister and the chair of the CRA’s management board, Suzanne Gouin, whose term ends in August.

At the request of the Office of the Taxpayers’ Ombudsperson, the CRA has changed is T1 adjustment request webpage to encourage taxpayers to file their requests online, rather than by printing and mailing a form.

Michelle Schriver

Michelle is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and sister publication Investment Executive. She has worked with the team since 2015 and been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and SABEW for her reporting. Email her at michelle@newcom.ca.